Running a navy ship is similar to running a business: Both require leaders who can get their crews to operate at peak efficiency and complete the challenges at hand, retired Captain D Michael Abrashoff told Truckload Carrier Association members at their annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“You can be reasonably successful with a good product and good technical capability,” Abrashoff said. “If you want to be phenomenally successful, however, you must connect with your employees so they will support your mission and take as much pride and ownership in the business as you do.
“To grow a business you have to figure out how to make the leap from manager to leader,” he said. “If you've only created order takers, they will not accept accountability or responsibility for the results. You have to create ownership among your team.”
Abrashoff said he proved that progressive management — leading by example, communicating purpose and meaning, creating a climate of trust, generating unity, improving people's quality of life, pushing beyond standard procedure, and looking for results, not salutes — can succeed in the military and businesses in the private sector that have similarly rigid organizations.
Among his many accomplishments, It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy is Abrashoff's first book since he retired from the Navy. He wrote it to translate the methods he used at sea into an approach that can be used by land-bound leaders of commerce and industry. Without the option to hire or fire personnel, Abrashoff changed the culture among sailors to elevate their performance and made his ship the Navy's top performer in 20 months. The ship received the prestigious Spokane Trophy for having the best combat readiness in the fleet.
The Harvard Business Review has heralded his success, and business schools have made his leadership as a Navy captain a case study in organizational success. His follow-up book, Get Your Ship Together, describes how leaders in organizations have put his grassroots leadership principles to work.
Role model
“The most important lesson I learned from writing It's Your Ship is that I'm no different from anyone in this room,” Abrashoff said. “Think about all the things that have caused you to become the success you are today, and then ask what is within your ability to do even better. For me, it was to become a role model for my crew. Everyday I would think about the name of our ship — USS Benfold — and the integrity that guided Edward Benfold during his life.”
During the Korean War, Benfold was a 21-year-old medic helping two wounded Marines in a foxhole when the enemy attacked with grenades. Benfold rushed the enemy with the grenades killing himself and the enemy soldiers, and saving the lives of the Marines.
“The whole secret of leading a ship or managing a business is to communicate a common goal that inspires a diverse group of people to work hard together,” Abrashoff said. “That's what my crew got — a purpose that transformed their lives and made the USS Benfold the best ship in the United States Navy.
“I know there are tremendous pressures to retain quality people in the trucking industry,” he said. “But it's far less expensive to keep them rather than continually go out and find new replacements to train. Leadership isn't easy. Not one of us is a perfect leader. They don't exist. We spend a lifetime acquiring the necessary technical skills to run our businesses more efficiently. But we also can spend the same time acquiring leadership skills to give us the courage and confidence to make that leap from manager to leader. It wasn't until I had to take command of the ship that I examined my leadership skills.”
When Abrashoff took command of the 8,300-ton warship, it was equipped with one of the most advanced computer-controlled combat system and state-of-the art radar technology with missiles capable of connecting with precise targets on land, sea, and air. Yet the crew had one of the worst performance records of any ship in the United States Navy.
“The first time I got the ship underway we were backing away from the pier and I saw flames coming out of the exhaust stack,” he said. “We were scheduled for deployment to the Middle East in two months, and we had flunked our engineering certification. At this point, I wasn't the least concerned about the possibility of being blown out of the water by the enemy. I figured we'd do it ourselves.”
Ship morale was so low that the crew stood and cheered when the former commander and his family walked down the gangway for the final time during the formal change of command ceremony.
“I had never seen or heard of such a blatant act of disrespect in my military career,” he said. “My first thought was I didn't want this to happen when I left the ship. And my second thought was about not being prepared to go into combat. I had to create a culture that would make everyone believe they were critical to the operation of the ship.”
Before Abrashoff took command of the ship, the USS Benfold was retaining only 8% of crew members who were eligible to re-enlist. Training expenses focused mainly on new recruits because there was never time for advanced training.
“We were losing our best and brightest, and the Navy was saying it was because of financial compensation,” he said. “So I decided to see what was really gone on in people's minds when they were walking off the ship.”
The results of Abrashoff's exit survey results showed that pay ranked as the fifth most important issue for working in the military. The top four issues were that crew members didn't feel they were being treated with respect, they didn't believe anyone listened to them, they felt they made no impact on the organization, and they didn't see any opportunity to be trained for future positions of responsibility and leadership.
“I can't change the pay structure in the Navy, but I could focus on connecting with the crew and engaging them as a team. We were on a warship, and my top responsibility was to increase our efficiency and readiness for battle.”
Part of Abrashoff's leadership ideas were formed during his service as a military assistant to then Secretary of Defense William Perry. Abrashoff months later mustered the courage to ask the Secretary why he had been selected from so many available candidates representing all of the branches of the military. Perry told him his selection was a choice that had been made solely by the Secretary's staff.
“Perry told me that his successful career was a result of the team of people who supported him to get his mission accomplished,” Abrashoff said. “He taught me that it's not great strategies that make people committed to a person's leadership — just the excellent execution of basic, simple tasks. I watched him treat people the way he wanted to be treated with respect and dignity, whether it was a janitor working in the halls of the Pentagon or a head of state. I left his office determined to become William Perry to my ship crew.”
Abrashoff began interviewing every sailor with less than a year of service remaining in the Navy — many of whom who had never seen the ship quarters of a commanding officer — asking them three questions: what they liked most and least about the Benfold, and what they would change if they were captain of the ship.
Grassroots leadership
“My job was to listen to all of the ideas that they had for improving the operations of the ship, because the most important responsibility of a captain is to see the ship from the eyes of the crew — a grassroots leadership approach. I wanted them to know that they really could challenge more than 200 years of rules and regulations if they offered a better way to accomplish our goals.”
That grassroots leadership approach leads to the following benefits, he said:
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Every person takes ownership and feels responsible for organizational success
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The focus is on purpose and performance
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Leaders listen in order to manage change on their terms
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Change and innovation are not only accepted but embraced
Every person on every level in the chain of command felt they had ownership in the ship,” he said. “They came to work passionate, motivated, dedicated, and committed to the challenges of our operations. If they had an idea about how to do something more efficiently, all they had to do was tell their chain of command.”
When the crew realized that Abrashoff was committed to listening to their suggestions, ideas began to spring up all through the ship. One sailor told the captain that the Navy wasted too much time painting and re-painting ships every other month. He suggested replacing topside equipment — anything made of ferrous metal with stainless steel.
“We took out our government version of a Visa Card and spent about $25,000 on hardware to change out,” he said. “And then we didn't have to paint the ship again for another 10 months. With the time saved, we could focus sailors' work activities on higher value operations. Now that program is used in every ship in the Navy — an idea from some 21-year-old who said there was a better way.”
For truly outstanding or exceptional work, commanding officers were authorized by the Navy to present sailors with a Navy Achievement Medal — a maximum of 15 medals a year. A sailor who receives the medal receives additional points on their advancement exams. Abrashoff said he always carried some medals in his pocket while walking around the ship.
“If I caught someone doing something really great, I'd give them a medal right on the spot and let the paperwork catch up later. I wanted the crew to know that I appreciated great performance on the ship. I later figured out that no one at the Bureau of Naval Personnel was tracking my activities, because I gave out more than 100 medals during my first year of command.”
Abrashoff also spent face-to-face time with new crew members to learn some personal information, such as family situation, goals to accomplish while in the Navy, and what he could do to help them meet those goals. More than 50% of crew members told Abrashoff they had joined the Navy to get college tuition assistance with the GI bill. Some of them wanted to attend college but never had the chance to complete an admissions exam.
An SAT administrator was sent to the ship from an airbase in Bahrain to give the exam. A 19-year-old level-entry seaman working with the chipping and painting deck group scored a 1490 on her SAT.
Abrashoff said he also learned that if more people enjoy the process, the better the results. Living on a ship in the Persian Gulf isn't very enjoyable. But the Benfold crew became known throughout the fleet for unique ways of on-ship entertainment. During refuelings alongside supply tankers, for example, they were able to project music videos on the side of the ship. Thursday evenings were reserved for listening to jazz, smoking cigars, and watching the sunset from the flightdeck.
“There's no rule that says you can't have some fun with your job,” he said. “At the same time, it led to a strengthened unity of purpose among the crew members.”
Retention rate
At the end of his command, the retention rate among the ship crew almost had reached 100%, and the ship was running on 75% of its available operating budget, returning money to taxpayers.
To reward the crew for their top performance, Abrashoff decided the ceremony for his end of command would be held at sea during training exercises. This avoided extra work for the crew to prep the ship for the fancy, traditional ceremony. Federal Express transported 310 live lobsters from Maine to the ship while it was stationed at San Diego, California.
“Every crew member knew they were responsible for the delivering excellence to their ship,” he said. “I walked to the side of the ship where a small boat waited to take me to shore. I turned and saluted them. Later at home, I received an email from one of the sailors saying ‘there wasn't a dry eye on the ship.’
“The trucking industry faces tremendous pressures — high cost of fuel, changes in the economy — many issues that you can't control. Spend time focusing on things you can change, such as training the next generation of leaders who will work with drivers on a daily basis. Recruit your current employees every day and they become more loyal and dedicated to you and your company.
“Finally, think about what you want in your change of command ceremony. When you give up command of your ship, will you leave to cheers or tears?”
